NEWS | Wednesday, 31 December 2008

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Italy starts general expulsion of migrants

Matthew Vella
Italy has started an unprecedented expulsion of irregular immigrants who arrived on its shores this week, in the small island of Lampedusa.
Thirty-eight Egyptians were flown to Cairo yesterday under new laws unveiled by Italy’s right-wing government.
The UNHCR said the move raised the risk of “generalised expulsions” and appealed to the government to respect the rights of immigrants.
“It is important, even in an emergency situation, to guarantee information on their rights and allow all those who express an interest in seeking asylum to be transferred as soon as possible to the appropriate centres,” Laura Boldrini told the ANSA news agency.
Maroni said he arranged for the “activation of a centre suitable for identification and expulsion.”
Italian ministers have clashed over the Mediterranean’s approach on immigration with Libya, after the country cancelled talks with Italy and Malta back in December.
As 253 migrants landed in Lampedusa earlier this week, Italian home affairs minister Roberto Maroni, from the separatist Northern League, called for a tougher line against immigration and Libya.
But the defence minister Ignazio La Russa, from the right-wing National Alliance, called for patience: “Ghaddafi will respect the agreements: it’s just that his way of keeping time is rather Libyan, a little Levantine.”
Maroni, who called the situation in Lampedusa “an emergency”, said repatriations of the migrants will be starting almost immediately.
Italy is also planning a coastal patrol of Libya, with Libyan cooperation, saying an Italian delegation was laying down the framework with their Libyan counterparts.
“The problem does not concern Italy but other countries like Cyprus, Malta and Greece, with whom a meeting for 13 January has been set for a common strategy, and to take our concerns to the European Council to be held in Prague,” Maroni said.
A total of 139 illegal immigrants were rescued some 87 nautical miles, south-south-west of Malta by an Armed Forces of Malta patrol boat on Monday, after the immigrants contacted the Italian Coast Gaurd’s MRCC station in Rome with a satellite phone.
On Monday, the AFM flew out an Air Wing Islander aircraft to the area where the migrants were thought to be. A patrol boat found 103 men and 36 women, 10 of whom appeared pregnant.
Initial reports indicate the group is made up of Somalis, Ghanaians and Nigerians.

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